Funding to protect endangered species on farms

Farmers in the Southern Mallee will receive funding to improve habitat for threatened and endangered species on 600 hectares of farmland in the region.

Reagent Parrots

Farmers in the Southern Mallee will receive funding to improve habitat for threatened and endangered species on 600 hectares of farmland in the region.

Funding of $160,000 has been announced for projects to be completed by 21 farmers and landholders under the 2015-16 Southern Mallee Revegetation Program and the Mallee Biodiversity Incentive Program.

The grants round is supported by the Mallee Catchment Management Authority (CMA), through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme.

Mallee Catchment Management Authority Chair Sharyon Peart said it would be the third year of funding to help farmers with revegetation works, fencing and weed control.

“Farmers themselves are really conscious of the environment they live and work in and have great ideas about how they can make their properties better for local native wildlife,” Ms Peart.

“These projects provide the practical and financial support to help farmers actually get started on their ideas,” she said.

“We know from the past programs that getting the work done and seeing the benefits it brings to the landscape and local birds and animals gives them real satisfaction.”

The 2015-16 Southern Mallee Revegetation Program and Mallee Biodiversity Incentive Program provided funding for projects in the Wathe target area. The area is on the eastern fringe of Wyperfeld National Park incorporating farmland around Wyperfeld National Park, the Wathe and Paradise Flora and Fauna Reserves and the Patchewollock State Forest.

Also funded were projects in the Avoca target area, which incorporates 378,700 hectares of predominantly dryland farming area around Birchip, Sea Lake, Lake Tyrrell, Wahpool, Timboram and the Lalbert, Tyrrell and Dunmunkle Creek Systems.

“The Wathe area is one of the breeding and feeding grounds for the Malleefowl and it’s also a feeding area for the Regent Parrot, which migrates in to feed on local grass seeds and herbaceous plants,” Ms Peart said.

“In the Avoca area, we are wanting to protect more of the local Buloke Woodlands and provide additional habitat for the Plains Wanderer.

“There are also two vulnerable local plant species we are working to protect – the perennial shrub Chariot Wheel and the Slender Darling Pea.”

Ms Peart said some of the revegetation projects would help improve links between existing patches of vegetation.

“In these two areas most private land has been cleared for agriculture, but there are significant patches of remnant vegetation within this private land, as well as on roadsides and in public reserves,” she said.

“The work on protecting existing remnant vegetation and revegetating private land can provide some critical linkages between these patches for birds and animals to move around,” Ms Peart said.